Disclaimer: Shh, I dun understand why I'm saying this. It's not like I can get anything (except reviews) from this fic. But I still have to say again and again that I don't own Chrno Crusade and its character. I just own Kirst, the bow and arrows that the siblings found in the cave.

Summary: Engaged to Duke Kirst, the only successor of an aristocratic family, Princess Rossette decided to run away & wouldn't come back until she had found her true love. She then lived in a small town in the country. She had never thought she would have a turning point of her life at this outlying place.

Uhm, sorry for the long wait. I tried my best but school work doesn't help much, especially when I am in the last year of secondary school and my laziness had a great help in delay my work. However, I will write a proper chapter. And everyone, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

-----------Previous-----------

"That's okay. You can in this house with us and you can help us take care of the children." with a gentle smile, Ms Kite said.

"Uhm, excuse me, but how many children are there? And are they all yours?"

"Um, there are fifteen children here. No and yes, they are and aren't my children. Their parents died in plague, war, poverty or abandoned them when they were very young so I took them in and become their adoptive mother."

"Oh, I see. You must be very busy."

"Uhm, not really. Chrno has done almost everything for me."

"And I will help you from now on."

'Hah, this will be handful of work.'

Chapter 2: A day full of work

The shining sun sent its brilliant daylight through the curtain and much to her disliking, woke Rossette up. Being a princess with tons of morning duties herself, Rossette always had to get up early, but not without the maids' pleading, begging, imploring and her brother's special waking technique. So she convinced herself that since this was her first day of freedom, she should enjoy it by staying in bed a little more. She was soon interrupted by a baritone voice:

"Are you going to stay in bed all day or get up and help us with the children like you said yesterday?"

Startled by the voice, the former princess looked up to find a handsome boy who she had taken a liking since the moment their eyes met. But her mood soon changed from admired to angry when she realized the mocking hidden in that sentence.

"Well, sorry for not being a morning person. But could you please step out of my room so that I can change and do my work?"

Well, everyone Rossette had met would be scared to death by her wrath, including her father, the almighty emperor. But this man, he just smirked and bowed his head then went out. 'Weird. May be running away and being a commoner can do something good. Back at the palace, people usually respect me because of my status. But here, I can be myself without worried about my reputation. This shall prove to be very interesting.' After that thought, Rosette reluctantly got up. Well the room she was staying wasn't as big as half her old room but quite cozy, her bed wasn't a king size bed but still comfortable, that's why she found it quite painful having to leave get up. She came to the bathroom to brush her teeth, tied her hair in a pony tail at the nape of her neck then changed into a village girl clothes that Ms.Kite had given her the previous day.

After finished getting dressed for the day, Rossette went downstairs to look for Chrno. She found him standing in the kitchen with a dozen of eggs. He made a fatal mistake by asking her to help him prepare breakfast for everyone. Being a princess, Rossette had never come to the kitchen once in her life, let alone cooked anything. But she couldn't tell him that reason, so she simply agreed and prayed the gods above to help her.

Half an hour later, Chrno regretted having asked the girl to cook. The whole kitchen was a total mess: eggs were everywhere, water was spred on the floor, smoke was coming out from the oven, some plates, dishes, glasses were shattered all over the place and any damage you could think of a destroyed kitchen or even more. Worse, the culprit was oblivious and still innocently continued to burn another bread. And it seemed like he had done something very bad in his previous life to make the gods hated her, Ms.Kite decided to show up at that moment and asked: "What's going on here? Is there a burglar?"

After the disastrous event called cooking breakfast, Chrno managed to have a proper breakfast for the children and cleaned up the mess. After that, he showed Rossette around and took her to the river where everyone does their laundry. Then he left her there and went to the town for some shopping. On his way to the grocery, Chrno couldn't stop himself being wonder about the strange clumsy girl. And after a hard time wrestling with tons of question, he gave up and decided that she was none of his business.

After Chrno had left her at the river bank, Rossete began to do what he told her to. Luckily, she had seen the maid washing before so she managed to find out how to so it properly. But she could never think the task could be that hard until she tried to do. She used all her strength to rub the cloth, washed away all the dirt. Two hours passed by but to her it seemed like two days when she finally finished. Thought that she still had some time for a rest before Chrno came and picked her up, Rossette lain down on the grass and slowly went to dreamland in the soothing sound of the river.

Chrno finished his shopping so he started to head back to the river. And there he saw her, sleeping carefreely like nothing could bother her. Her shining hair sparkled under the sunlight, she looked like an angel without wings. Unconsciously, he walked to her side. 'She is beautiful, my angel! I wonder why she was here in the first place.' Realization drew on him as he registered what had just been said, Chrno scolded himself mentally: 'Stop that thought, what do you think you are doing, Chrno? You know well that you can't be attached to anyone for eternity. No one!' So he decided to keep a certain distance from the girl before his eyes, however, he still had to wake her up to come back, right? So Chrno slowly and gently shook Rossette until her eyes opened. They started to walk back to the orphanage. Then Chrno showed the princess where to put the laundry, how to feed the chickens, collect the eggs,… As the sun began to setting, the purple-hair man even manage to teach the clumsy girl in front of him how to cook an acceptable dinner and even though it wasn't so bad, it was not a success either. By the end of the evening, when the moon had come to its highest and whichever star decided to show up had been shining brightly, one could see all of the children sat around the stove instead of running around like little devils, looked at a blonde and listened to her story eagerly. The story was about a princess, who had fallen asleep due to a witch's curse and only woke up after a hundred years by a charming price's kiss. That was one of various stories Rossette's nanny had told her when she was a kid. When she finished the story, the kids were too tired to try to run around so it was very easy to tuck them into bed. All she had to do is promised them a story the next day and they all willingly came to bed.

"This is the easiest night of my life with these kids. I have to thank you a lot, Rossette." said Ms.Kite.

"No, I would be the one to say that, never in my life have I had this much fun."

"I wonder why you said that, according to your lack of common senses and skills you must have a life of a princess back home" came Chrno's voice from behind them.

"Well, sorry mister if I can't cook a meal or don't know how to clean a house but it is not like I want. And what if I'm a princess at home? It's none of your business anyway." She nearly shouted at him after his comment and then stormed of. 'That jerk! Always getting on my nerve. I've just known him about two days and he has already made me mad twice. I swear he is my death and maybe, no, certainly I will kill him some day with my old hand.' That was Rossette's last thought before slept overcame her.

As for Chrno and Ms.Kite, they just stood there, dumbfounded after the ill-temper girl had left. After awhile, Ms.Kite, the one who recovered first, spoke:

"Well, now we know one more thing about Rossette. She had a bad temper so try to remember not to press her anymore, right Chrno? Chrno?"

Not received any response, Ms.Kite turned around and found a daydreaming man. Yes, Chrno was having a strong sense of dejavu about the bad tempered girl. He felt like he had been through this temper a long time ago. It brought an endearing feeling with it and he couldn't say it wasn't pleasant. However, he quickly collected himself and came out of the daze. He then went to his room for the night, not once acknowledged the woman standing beside him.

"Somehow this girl seems to be familiar. I wondered if I have met her before. I must find someway to ask her about it, maybe tomorrow? But the question is if I will be readied to face her wrath by then? Probably not." cringed Chrno, while murmuring all the way to his room.

"Youth…" signed Ms.Kite as she too went back to her own room.

-----------Rossette's dream-----------

"Where am I? Where is everyone? Father? Mother? Joshua" asked a confused princess. She was surrounded by the endless darkness. There was nothing around her and even her feet couldn't feel the ground under. But then she saw a light, dim at first. When she stepped towards it to have a closer look, it became brighter. Finally, when she was close enough that she was able to look into it, she saw a lake.

"Wait, this lake is familiar. Yes, this is the favourite spot of Joshua and me."

And before her eyes, strangely enough, were her younger self and Joshua's. They were about nine or ten and were running towards the lake. They were shouting something to somebody running behind them. Took a closer look, that was a boy, maybe as the same age as them. The three looked like they were having a lot of funs. They played hide and seek, they chasing, laughing together. The young members of the royal family called the boy's name a few time but for some reason, Rossette couldn't hear them. She tried to see the boy's face but couldn't. And when he finally turned his face around, Rossette just had enough time to catch a glimpse of a gentle and loving smile.

-----------End of dream-----------

Rosette sat straight up on her bed. She came to an understanding: this dream was her memory. But who was that boy? Why didn't she remember him? Why she felt her heart ached at the memory of that smile? She really didn't understand. But Rossette was not the type of people who worried about a dream for more than thirty second. She then lay down and went into a dreamless sleep, completely forgot about the dream.

Meanwhile, at the next room…

A purple hair boy opened his eyes, a chain of sweats started to form on his forehead as he lay on his bed, stared at the ceiling and remembered the dream he had jus had.

-----------Chrno's dream-----------

There was fire, the screaming, crying were everywhere. People frantically running from place to place, shouted loudly"Put out the fire! Looking for the Duke family! Bring water!" or something along the line. But he didn't care. He just wanted to find his parents and have their protective arms wrapped around him.

"Father? Mother? What's happening?" asked the young Chrno. He was trying to wake his parents. His father's skin felt cold, he wondered why. He couldn't have been dead, could he? He gently shook his mother, and then shook her stronger. In the end, he used everything he had to shook her and felt a relief washed over him when she stirred and opened her eyes. But his smile died on his lips when he saw a dagger at the back of his mother and her blood was pouring non stop from the wound. He saw something sparkled in her hand and then recognized it as the golden pocket watch that his mother always wore. She handed it to him and whispered the incoherent sentence:" Run! Run as far as you can, my son!"

As clever as him at such young age, he understood what she meant and knew that there must be a reason for her action. He knew he should run as she told him but he really didn't want to leave her side. But after the sentence was said, her eyes closed as the last breath left her mouth. Chrno didn't have the time to shed tears for his parents when he heard…

-----------End of dream-----------

Yes, that dream, no, he thought nightmare was more suitable to call it had haunted him since that night, the night had turned his life up side down. However, it hadn't come to him for a long time so he wondered why was it now? But it had a good outcome too. It reminded him a little too well the reason he didn't want anyone involve in his life, in fear of endanger the life of the ones he loved. This nightmare once again solidified his feeling towards a certain blonde.

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Heh heh, guess I read too much Sess/Kag stories for my own good. I almost typed "Souta" instead of "Joshua". And everything is getting more and more interesting, ne? I will reveal little then little about Chrno's past, Rossette's childhood and some others' secrets.

Everyone, please review, so that I will know what you think of my story. And I'll tell you a secret: "I'm flying like a rocket cause some readers have put me in their alert and favourite, it encouraged me very much. And if any of you can explain to me what C2 communicate mean and how to use it (I read about it but I still don't understand), I will thanks that person a lot. And HAPPY NEW YEAR

Next time: Atroupe of minstrels, a festival and an appearance of the landlords… are enough to make friends and love rival.